The Case

In dismissing the defendant's appeal against conviction for causing death by dangerous driving on the ground that evidence of his previous misconduct had not been unreasonable or wrong in principle, save in one respect, the court held that applications to adduce evidence of previous misconduct which had not been the subject of conviction had to be approached with considerable caution. If a judge decided to admit such evidence, he had to consider how to deal with it in his summing up in a way which was fair and did not give undue prominence to the bad character evidence.